All in A Day's Work
by lilkawa
Summary: While working late one night, Michael comes across the Shell program and uses it.
1. Chapter 1

_Nikita _doesn't belong to me.

**All in A Day's Work**

Michael sat at the desk typing on the computer. He'd just arrived back from a job in Cyprus and he was dead on his feet but he knew Percy would expect a report in his inbox first thing tomorrow, so Michael had two options really; either finish it tonight or come in early tomorrow morning and get it done before Percy checked his mail. He preferred to sleep in so he had to get it done now.

An hour later Michael was happy with his report and he was ready to send it to Percy when somehow he lost everything. He'd been saving but he failed to find the report anywhere. He frowned at the computer, booted and rebooted it but he couldn't find the report. He thought of calling Birkhoff but he was tired and he wasn't in the mood for any jokes about his lack of computer savvy; besides Birkhoff had some work he had to finish for Percy tonight. He'd ask Birkhoff to find it tomorrow; at least he'd finished it.

As he was going to switch off the computer, a blank page with only a prompt appeared out of nowhere. Michael looked at it wondering what was going on. He pressed the ALT+DEL+CTRL keys and he watched in fascination as the letters A, L, T, D, E, L, C, T, R, and L appeared on the page and then disappeared leaving the words READY FOR USE on the screen. He shook his head, it was probably one of Birkhoff's games, and typed _Hi,_ and waited.

0000

Nikita was sitting at her desk watching the News on the computer. Alex was fast asleep; they'd just finalized their plans to get Alex into Division. In less than three days, Alex would be Division's newest recruit. This was what was keeping Nikita awake, she was worried about her young friend; Alex claimed that she was ready but Nikita feared for her safety, what if she got caught? What if they made her do things she couldn't do? What if…?

The News was interrupted and the word _Hi,_ appeared on Nikita's screen. Someone in Division had activated the Shell box program. Birkhoff must have found it, Nikita thought, what should I do? She looked at the screen nervously.

0000

Michael looked at the screen, waiting for a reply. A thought came to him, why not play a silly game, see what Birkhoff's computer would say in reply?

He typed;

_At first I was afraid_

_I was petrified_

_Kept thinking I could never live _

_Without you by my side, _and waited.

Nikita looked at the words on her screen and in spite of herself typed back.

_But then I spent so many nights_

_Thinking how you did me wrong_

_And I grew strong_

_And I learned how to get along_

Michael burst out laughing; Birkhoff's computer knew some things. Let's see if you know this, he said to himself, and typed;

_The moon is up, the stars are bright_

_The wind is fresh and free_

_We're out to seek for gold tonight_

_Across the silver sea,_

and waited, within seconds he'd received a reply.

_The night was growing grey and cold_

_Break out the sails again_

_We're out to seek a realm of gold_

_Beyond the Spanish Main_

Nikita waited for a bit, wondering all the while if she'd taken leave of her senses and typed;

'_Wonderful,' I ejaculated._

Michael typed back;

'_Commonplace,' said Holmes._

This was interesting Michael thought to himself, he was about to type something else when Birkhoff walked in. Without giving much thought to why he was doing it, Michael quickly shut down and stood up. "I'm beat," he said to his friend.

"Me too," Birkhoff replied, and they left the room.

0000

Nikita saw that the user had logged off; she smiled to herself and picked up her gun and went to bed.

0000

_**Thanks for reading and reviewing**__._

_The quotes are not mine; _

_I will survive by Gloria Gaynor_

_Drake by Alfred Noyes_

_A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle_


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you expecting a message or something?" Alex asked Nikita.

"No. Why?" Nikita asked her, looking up guiltily from the computer.

"It's just that you keep checking the computer," Alex told her. Nikita realized that she'd been checking on the computer hoping for a message from the mysterious person at Division.

"I guess it's just a nervous reaction." Nikita smiled at Alex, "let's go pick out some masks."

000

Michael had just finished some work and was about to leave the desk when the blank page with the prompt appeared on the screen; he'd been hoping that the mysterious person would get in touch, _Hi,_ he typed.

_Hi_, Nikita wrote back.

_I was hoping I'd run into you again, if you get my drift_, he wrote.

_Who are you?_ Nikita asked, she really wanted to know and hoped against hope that the person she'd enjoyed writing to the other night wasn't Percy or Amanda.

Michael looked at the screen; should he tell the computer his name? On the other hand the person at the other end probably knew it was him, it wouldn't hurt to tell them his name, and it was just a name after all. _I'm Michael_, he wrote back.

Nikita couldn't believe it; okay she could, who else in Division would have been that interesting to write to. Thank God it wasn't Birkhoff.

_Aren't you going to introduce yourself?_ Michael asked her.

_No,_ she wrote back.

_Seriously, you're not going to tell me your name? _Michael asked.

Nikita wondered what he would do if she said that it was her, Nikita, finally back on the grid, but why tempt fate. She finally had a chance to spend time with Michael without their past and individual baggage getting in their way.

_Not yet,_ she wrote.

_What do you mean not yet?_ He asked. _You mean at some later stage you will tell me your name?_

_Maybe,_ she wrote back, _if you're good, who knows?_

_How will you know that I'm being good?_ He asked, smiling to himself, settling in for another exciting chat session.

_I have my ways,_ Nikita begin to type back, but Alex walked into the room, "I think I'll go with this one," she said, holding out a mask. Nikita stood up reluctantly, it was time to go through the plan again; she logged off and joined her young friend. It was time to concentrate on the task at hand.

Michael waited, and then saw the words, USER OFFLINE on the screen and left the computer. He couldn't wait for the next time they'd meet again.

**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**


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